Does salesperson’s karma orientation reduce counterproductive behaviors? Exploring the moderating impact of emotional labor and self-leadership

Purpose This conceptual article aims to explore the salience of a salesperson’s karma orientation – a form of workplace spirituality – and its effect on his/her deviant behaviours (e.g., workplace incivility and ostracism). It also explores the moderating influence of emotional labor and self-leadership. Design/methodology/approach This is anchored on the dual-process theory to delineate a framework of salesperson’s karma orientation and its impact on counterproductive work behaviors, through a series of research propositions. Findings The propositions highlight that high karma orientation among salespeople tends to reduce deviant behaviors (both workplace incivility and workplace ostracism), more so when salespeople exhibit higher emotional labor and higher self-leadership behaviors. Practical implications Sales organizations that employ internal or outsourced sales employees can leverage the individual’s karma orientation and its dimensions to mitigate the effects of counterproductive work behavior displayed by sales employees, either within sales teams, across teams or in the marketplace. Implementing self-leadership strategies will enhance the intrinsic motivation of sales staff and reduce the likelihood of engaging in deviant workplace activities. Emotional labor will enhance sales personnel’s awareness of their emotional expressions, and when combined with the theory of karma orientation, it will render their acts more purposeful. Originality/value The research contributes to the workplace spirituality literature by enhancing the extant knowledge on mitigating the effects of counterproductive work behaviors among salespersons (in the form of workplace incivility and ostracism).